Hotel Rwanda Essay example - 1565 Words

I decided to surf the internet in search of inspiration, and I found it on the mediate.com website. Robert Benjamin’s article â€Å"Hotel Rwanda and the Guerrilla Negotiator† definitely caught my eye†¦particularly since I had checked the DVD out from the library last Friday but hadn’t yet watched it. Benjamin’s article piqued my interest enough to do some additional research on Rwanda, and passion was born. While a colony of Belgium, Rwanda was separated into two tribal groups which many say was based on physical characteristics such as the wideness of the nose: the common Tutsi (majority), and the upper-class Hutu (minority). For many years, the Tutsis were powerful and mistreated the Hutus. In 1962, Rwanda gained its independence from†¦show more content†¦As the UN refugee camp reached overload, Rusesabagina is continually asked to provide sanctuary for more Tutsi refugees. Through continued wheeling, dealing, and manipulation, Rusesabagina is directly responsible for saving the 1,268 lives. He and his wife adopted two surviving nieces and now reside with them and their own three children in Belgium. Benjamin points out that almost every scene in the film showcases the power of negotiation â€Å"as a means of survival even in the face of vile and irrational human behavior†, adding â€Å"there is much to be gleaned from the gritty style of negotiation that is compelled in those circumstances.† Benjamin calls this â€Å"guerrilla negotiation†, adding â€Å"borne out of necessity, not ideology, he or she operates solely by their own wits, earning credibility and trading on their ability to convey a personal sense of authenticity.† Armed with Benjamin’s perspective in my mind, I found it easy to spot the ongoing negotiation he noted†¦and just as easily realized I probably wouldn’t have categorized it as such if I hadn’t read the article first. Clearly, Rusesabagina reads people exceedingly well, recognizes what it will take to get what he wants/needs from them, masterfully communicates what they need to hear, and triumphs. Perhaps the most moving example in the movie is when Rusesabagina is ordered to execute his own family and instead manages to buy their safety.Show MoreRelated Hotel Rwanda Essay607 Words   |  3 PagesHotel Rwanda Some people can’t resist trying to be someone they really aren’t. In the film Hotel Rwanda, the main character changed his own styles just to fit in with the Europeans and think that the Europeans will treat them as if he was a real European. And when times of crisis come along, he finds out that the Europeans have always looked down at them. After that, he understands that what he’s been doing was not himself and he changes. Paul RusesabaginaRead MoreEssay on Rwanda Genocide Compared with Hotel Rwanda2521 Words   |  11 Pagescentral African country of Rwanda. The Hutus and the Tutsis, two ethnic groups within Rwanda, have been at continual unrest for the past half a century. During the 100 day massacre of 1994, a murder occurred every two seconds; resulting in 18% of the Tutsi population being killed. A decade after the war, in 2004, the film Hotel Rwanda was released. The film followed the story of a Hutu man; Paul Rusesabagina as he housed over 1200 Tutsi refugees in his hotel. The Hotel De Milles Collines, a five-starRead MoreMovie Analysis : Hotel Rwanda1519 Words   |  7 PagesThe based on a true story trademark of the film Hotel Rwanda has implications for genocidal memory, post genocidal peace and reconciliation, and the promotion of heroism amid the udder chaos that engulfed the country. The film ultimately illustrates an oversimplified, ideologically driven version of the 1994 mass acre. It emphasizes the role of a Hollywood hero, rather than the deeply rooted and complex factors at the center of the violence, leading to popular opinion of the Hutu population as barbaricRead MoreMovie Report : On The Hotel Rwanda1237 Words   |  5 Pages For my movie report I watched the the film on the Hotel Rwanda (2004), which follows the true-life story of the war in Rwanda between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes. When the Hutu tribe wants redemption from the Tutsi rule which left them in repression by the Belgiums, the Hutu’s create violent militas, war gangs, and set out to murder almost a million people in the length of this awful genocide that the UN restrained from becoming involved in. Once the assassination of the President Habyarimana occursRead MoreMovie Review : Hotel Rwanda2038 Words   |  9 PagesHotel Rwanda is a film that made me cry many times throughout the film. This film most definitely goes to show how cruel many people in this world can be. This fi lm is about the genocide in Rwanda where thousands of Tutsi’s were killed because they were being blamed for everything going wrong in the country. It appears that many people want someone to blame for their own losses and troubles so they will go as far as to attempt to murder a whole group of people. In Hotel Rwanda, the film begins withRead MoreHotel Rwanda By Terry George975 Words   |  4 PagesPossibly the saddest and most tragic event that occurred in the last few decades was the genocide of the Tutsi population in Rwanda by the Hutu led government and Hutu people of the same country. Hotel Rwanda by Terry George is a film adaption of the experiences of a Tutsi hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina who sheltered and kept safe several thousand Hutu refugees during the genocide. This film clearly portrays its major themes such as ethnic conflict, the lack of human rights, and many other socialRead MoreTaking a Look at Hotel Rwanda600 Words   |  2 Pagesreceived from the Tutsis, they did not even initiate themselves to come help the Tutsis. This is viewed as such a bad thing that they did due to them obviously not being all together and apart of the same group because they did not even go to help Rwanda when they claimed that they would be the ones to help keep peace between eve ryone. It took a long time for the UN to actually step in, this is inferred through the movie and the 100 days that the genocide lasted, just think if the UN would of steppedRead MoreDr. Morris s Hotel Rwanda1067 Words   |  5 PagesMorris Video Review Paper Hotel Rwanda The Rwandan genocide occurred in 1994 between the two prevalent ethnic groups in Rwanda, the Hutu and the Tutsi. Hotel Rwanda documents the plight of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager, who opens his hotel as a shelter for the Tutsi people during the Rwandan genocide, saving thousands of lives in the processes. Through bribes Rusesabagina was able to keep thousands of Tutsi people from death. Like many other African states, Rwanda was colonized by a EuropeanRead MoreNight and Hotel Rwanda Similarities Essay1009 Words   |  5 PagesNight and Hotel Rwanda Similarities Throughout the course of humanity, we have experienced terrible transgressions in our society. Although they took place sixty-one years apart, similar horrific events from the Holocaust (1933-1945) and the Rwandan Genocide (1994) occurred. In Night, the Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state sponsored persecution and murder of approximately 6 million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. The Nazis believed they were â€Å"racially superior†Read MoreMy Personal Reaction On Hotel Rwanda Essay933 Words   |  4 Pages Hotel Rwanda Introduction In this essay I will write of my personal reaction on the movie Hotel Rwanda. This movie left me with a plethora of mixed emotions. Yet, it taught me many lessons on life and the world. From its historical background to its most recent movie filmed in 2004. Background Information Mille Collines was the main setting of this movie. It was a four-star hotel located in Kigali, Rwanda where Americans, French, and many more tourists would go for a calm oasis. Kigali

Thesis About Call Center Agents - 14127 Words

Chapter I Background of the Study If you are a nurse who recently took the board exam, then you must be one of the many new graduates who are considered to be unemployed. After the long weekend parties, holidays, and vacation trips a month ago, you should have recently wondered hey whats next for me now? Well you are not alone. In fact, many of my review mates in a local review center headed to many local BPO companies here in our city. BPO or business process outsourcing involves the contracting of the operations and responsibilities of specific business functions (or processes) to a third-party service provider. Employees who work under these companies are referred as call center agents or customer service representatives.†¦show more content†¦All of us agreed that being a Call Center Agent is a good job but a really tough one but convinced that it is not as tough as being a nurse. It gives us member the idea of a job-on-the-spot that can let graduate nurses grab. We also claim that working on a Call Center will let us explore more of the world before settling down as a nurse. All of us agreed that despite of our diversity in opinions and perceptions, we exclude our biases in understanding and knowing the life and experiences of being a Call Center Agent. Experiences Some members experienced being asked or recruited to join but they refused to. They were afraid that it will hinder their studies. One member, has been acquainted to a Call Center Agent and helped to seek job hunters. Another member had a fellow nursing student who after graduating entered and became a Call Center Agent. Considering these, we conduct a group discussion. We brainstormed this topic and unanimously agreed to it to be our research topic.. Strengths We applied other components of therapeutic relationship such as active listening, acceptance, genuine interest and positive regard during interaction process to facilitate cooperation from our participants and obtain the information we needed. We divided the tasks accordingly and all were willing to move beyond ourShow MoreRelatedBusiness Management Improves the Efficiency of an Organization1872 Words   |  7 Pagesfour goals: efficiency, calculability, predictability and control. McDonalds can be seen as an example of a contemporary symbol of relentlessness process of rationalization, where the employee is treated simply as a factor of production. Ritzer’s thesis (1998) states both theoretically and empirically that this constitutes a general process of â€Å"McDonalization’ which extends beyond work into the culture of society. He analysis suggests that there is an inevitable tendency towards the dehumanizationRead MoreAttention Getter : How Many Of You G uys Have Heard Of Edward Snowden?1231 Words   |  5 PagesSnowden? PURPOSE (state specific purpose, relate topic to audience and establish credibility): In the world of today most records can be easily accessed by a home computer. Some believe this has benefits, while others are screaming about invasion of privacy STATE THESIS (Should/ Should not): The Internet has revolutionized the world by innovating the way we access our information, but our private information is been invaded and share without our consent. MAIN POINTS: †¢ As Americans citizens privacyRead MoreEssay on A Progressive Movement1538 Words   |  7 Pagessubject, thereby influencing the historians of the future. The famed historian and teacher Richard Hofstadter wrote The Age of Reform in 1955 about the late 19th century and early 20th century movement of Progressivism. In turn, other historians that include Paula Baker, Richard McCormick, and Peter Filene have written their opinion on what the movement we call Progressivism really was, and what its real significance is, or even if it really existed as a movement in its own right. Richard Hofstadter’sRead MoreTechnology Has An Important Asset Nowadays1090 Words   |  5 PagesPayment Web Portal. It is about time as the capital city of Indonesia, Jakarta provides an accessible and complete user-friendly Tax Payment Web Portal. With the increase of intensive internet usage, citizens residing in Jakarta has opened up new possibilities to increase tax services in the name of information Technology. Moreover, with the recent use of Information Technology, real life interactions between customers and employees are limited, thus negative notions about Government employees areRead MoreBusiness Process Outsourcing in the Philippines4014 Words   |  17 Pages(BPO) company hires call center agents in the local area. The nature of their work is taking calls from the clients and providing information to the consumers. It is a high paying job with health insurance and benefits. Some people chose this kind of work even though it has some disadvantages. Call center agents encountered health problems while working in their designated area. A clinic break is a privilege in some Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies. Some call center agents use this clinicRead MoreThe And The Trial Rather Than On Primary Sources1329 Words   |  6 Pagesspecifically credits James O. Hall who perhaps did more than anyone to advance scholarship and research into the conspiracy to kidnap then assassinate President Lincoln. She also states that the research files housed at the James O. Hall Research Center are the core of any historian s investigation into the complex web of John Wilkes Booth s fatal scheme (231). She also thanks Google Books, Making of America, Documenting the American South, the Gutenberg Project, and numerous universities, librariesRead MoreAnimal Testing is the Best Way to Test Products Essay examples1116 Words   |  5 Pages 1. Introduction Thesis Statement: If animal testing were prohibited, then in what way would the effectiveness of a product be verified? A quote by Amanullah Ashraf states that, in order to gain something, we have to lose something . According to this, I will be discussing animal testing. Audience: everybody who thinks animal testing should be prohibited. Purpose: convincing people that animal testing is the best way to test products and its not â€Å"cruel† and â€Å"inhuman† as people say. 2. BodyRead MoreCIA Operational Psychology Essay2562 Words   |  11 Pagesthe National Security Act, our nation’s officials used spies, secret agents, covert action, and the gathering of intelligence during wars. During the Revolutionary War, George Washington drafted Nathan Hale and other spies to help them acquire independence. Benjamin Franklin and John Jay also created secret missions and operations to ensure their success during this war. These missions included secret agents and double agents, sabotage, raids against British troops, secret codes, propaganda andRead MoreCustomer Relationship in Tourism Industry13879 Words   |  56 Pagesdevelopment of society and technology EFO703 Bachelor thesis in Business Administration Business Administration, basic level-300, 15 ESTC-points Supervisor: Angelina Sundstrà ¶m Và ¤sterà ¥s, 2010-06-04 Customer Relationship in Tourism Industry --- A case study of Swedish travel agency Group 2546: Yanfei Yan Jie Yang Abstract Title: Customer Relationship in Tourism Industry – A case study on a Swedish Seminar date: 4th of June, 2010 Level: Bachelor thesis in Business Administration, Basic level 300, 15 ECTSRead More Cultural Differentiation and Moral Orientation: Taking an Interest in History4144 Words   |  17 Pagesthat in some fundamental sense, moral decision making is an individual matter, how does the social context of human life affect morality? In particular what is the significance of the fact that our social structures are constituted over time? The thesis of this paper is that Kants view on the nature of historical-moral progress is an important part of his comprehensive ethical theory. It sets the rational basis for the individuals moral obligation to promote the highest good by providing a moral

Sculpture and Ralph Hicks Free Essays

It’s a cold and overcast day in February and a man sits alone at a park bench, at the Dotted Sculpture Park. He watches as the river splashes aggressively about, caused by the strong wind blowing that day. Perched above him on the top of a hill just a few feet from the road, sits a large-scale sculpture called â€Å"Salutation†, by Ralph Hicks. We will write a custom essay sample on Sculpture and Ralph Hicks or any similar topic only for you Order Now Standing only 6 feet tall, it’s original conception called for the sculpture to have a height 30 feet and be placed at five of the major entry. Pays leading into Toronto. They would have welcomed visitors entering the city, if Toronto had won the bid for he 2008 Summer Olympics. On the first visit to Salutation, the lack of sun casts a shadow on the face as it bends forward and faces down, displaying a feeling of sadness. Shaped from metal and grey in color, the sculpture seems to reflect a feeling of submissiveness on this dark winter day. Its block-like smooth texture contrasts to the nature surrounding it, but offers balance with its simplistic lines and movement. The large size does not intimidate, but rather holds a lonely tone, reflected by the days weather. The use of lock like pieces allows for a childlike appearance and its rounded corners allow the installation to feel friendly. If the structure had contained sharp corners with a combination of grey color and metal exterior, it would have projected hard lines and been unwelcoming. Though it appears Hicks motive for its location was to greet people as they drove by, I have to question that decision. Salutation is not only misunderstood but also neglected by motorists who do not have the ability to interpret the meaning of the piece. Neither did it receive much attention from the pedestrians walking below. The riverside path is located at the bottom of the hill and by observing a few walking bye, they did not look up towards the sculpture once. The visitors attention seemed to be directed at either the river, the other sculptures, the skyline or themselves. Thus placing more emphasis on the loneliness the piece portrays. Another visit to Salutation with the morning sunrise reflecting upon it, did deliver a more cheerful feel. But the loneliness still lingered from the prior visit and now it’s as if it was smiling but still disguising the sadness within, as many go about their days and do. The sculpture with its rhythm of playfulness and kindness, puts a smile on your face if you allowed it to. Salutation has no reference to gender, age or race and in that way it transcends and relates to all. It faces east, as if to greet the morning sun and take on the day. Later as the sun sets behind it with it’s head bowing down, one feels a sense of it speaking and silently saying, â€Å"goodbye† and â€Å"well done† at the end of the day or a long Journey. A metaphor for life, from dawn till dusk. The salutation action is an attitude of respectful courtesy, which is conveyed through a human form. Salutation the sculpture by Ralph Hicks, assembled with the simplicity of irregular blocks, conveys a commanding presence and attitude. As it bows its head to passing travelers, Hicks tells us little about the model, providing no indication of race, social class or gender. Salutation is indiscriminating to viewers and offers the same greeting to all. Born in London, England in 1941 Ralph Hicks moved to Toronto at the age of 26. He first developed an interest in sculpture while still a student after seeing large-scale bronze sculptures by Roding, Liaise and Matisse at New Work’s Museum of Modern Art. Hicks graduated from the University of Bristol and Harvard Business School and worked in the marketing and management field till 1996, where he then committed full time to his current passion of sculpture art. He works out of a studio he built in Mule Hills, Ontario and spends his summers carving stone outside, and works with other material in the studio during the colder months. Hicks designed art with a variety of material such as, soapstone, limestone, wood, bronze, traditional plaster, polished aluminum rod, clay and even whimsical vinyl tubing. A lot of his work is tone carving that requires power tools to do the bulk of the work, but obtaining the final finish is the most time consuming part of the process. Hicks designs large-scale pieces because he feels size has impact and public installations are seen by many people and that’s rewarding to him as an artist. He creates sculpture for his own satisfaction, but what makes him happiest, is when he hears how a completed piece makes people feel. With his art he has no rules and that’s what makes it exciting to him. Salutation is Art, and Art is Salutation with simple cuboids who gives away little information, acknowledges your presence with a friendly bow and asks nothing in return, but causes a lasting impression. How to cite Sculpture and Ralph Hicks, Papers

Empowering Others to Empower Yourself free essay sample

People dont like being told what to do. This is a fairly simple concept. If you want people to do what you want them to, explicitly commanding them to do it isnt always the best strategy. Oddly, many companies regularly fail to comprehend or appropriately respond to this idea. Businesses that are out to make a profit are commonly associated with things like salesmen, bosses, CEOs, and in-your-face advertising, all of which carry the idea of telling people what to do. Valve Software is arguably one of the most successful, well-known, and highly commended companies in the video game industry, responsible for incredibly popular titles such as Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Portal, Team Fortress Classic, and their sequels (all of which are just as popular). However, from its very beginnings, Valve has set itself apart from other companies not only through the superior quality of its work, but by the way in which it continually empowers those that are a part of it. This includes staff, as well as community contributors, and even average users of any of Valves services. As Valve continues to empower its supporters, it continues to succeed. This brings a logical theory: empowering people, and therefore not telling them what to do, is a very viable way for a business to increase both its profits and its notoriety. Now, when I think about Valve on a regular basis all of this ambiguous, theoretical junk isnt what goes through my head. When it comes to Valve, the absolute, most important thing for me is that Valve makes amazing games. Valve makes mind-blowingly awesome games. On multiple occasions, Valve has immersed me into video games in ways I had never thought possible. I will never forget one particular section of Half-Life 2 in which I, the player, was required to navigate my way across the underside of a bridge over water, walking carefully on steel girders as enemy soldiers fired at me from the other side. One evasive step in the wrong direction would lead me plummeting to a watery grave below. I had never imagined that a video game could invoke a sudden fear of heights into the player so well. I have played Team Fortress 2 for 300 hours. It was a near daily activity my junior year to play after school with my best friend as we discussed how much we hated our history teacher. I have braved the intense battles against the Combine race, which tried to take over Earth in Half-Life 2. I have spent many late nights fighting seemingly endless hordes of zombies with friends in Left 4 Dead 2. And I have spent hours solving the puzzles in Portal and Portal 2 just to hear the perfectly games perfectly crafted dialogue. I have come to hold Valve in the highest regards among all other developers in the game industry. I have also acquired almost 100 games on the Steam platform, purchasing many games largely because they were heavily discounted (some were only a dollar). I estimate I have spent close to 40 dollars on items for use inside the game Team Fortress 2. I have also recently experienced the thrill in realizing that I can make my own levels for Left 4 Dead 2. I have realized that in many occasions, I have felt empowered by Valve, empowered as a consumer, as a player, and as a community member. In some ways, I could even say I was manipulated, but I am okay with this. In the end, Valves products and services continue to impress me, but I was left wondering if maybe there was a connection between how powerful I see Valve and how powerful they can make their users feel. To start understanding the way in which Valve empowers its patrons, we must first look into the groundwork: Valves employment structure. Valve is known for its complete lack of bosses among its developers. In fact, Valves handbook for new employees refers to this as the â€Å"Flatland,† meaning that every employee has the same level of power. Pay is determined by a system of peer review and â€Å"stack ranking,† which is a system by which employees assign values to their peers in 4 categories: skill level/technical ability, roductivity/output, group contribution, and product contribution. The value of each is added together for an employees total measure of worth to give appropriate compensation. Nobody is directly told what to do in the â€Å"Flatland. † The theory is that projects will form if enough people are interested in an idea, and subsequently, group leaders will temporarily form if needed. Ultimately, the strength in this system is that workers will be producing work which had their full dedication from the beginning. Emphasis is placed on finding your own ways to be productive. The handbook highlights the importance of â€Å"T-shaped† employees, workers that have a large variety of useable skills but are a specialist in a certain thing. Because so much responsibility is placed on individual employees, hiring incredibly skilled people who can easily be their own bosses is of utmost importance to Valve. Anybody may conduct interviews with potential employees and use their own discretion on the matter. The handbook stresses the importance of constantly raising the bar and only hiring people that are more talented than the workers already present. This goes against a usual business instinct, in which hiring many cheap, less talented workers is a cost efficient way to get a project done. However if this were to continue, some of the new employees may hire employees less skilled than themselves, and so-on, continually reducing the quality of workers present. When asked if there was any specific inspiration for Valves corporate setup, Gabe Newell, founder of Valve, actually referenced the 1993 shooter, Doom. He had worked for Microsoft and noticed that Windows was the second highest usage application at that time. The first was Doom, which was created and spread by a company of only 12 people (Suddath, 2012). This would instate the idea that having a concentrated group of powerful employees could be much more effective than a large, widespread corporation. Valves runaway success with their no-boss setup may involve a little bit of luck, but there are other companies out there that are finding the same type of success as Valve by eliminating bosses. General Electrics aviation branch and the software company GitHub both thrive with a single or small number of managers which form general goals for production, with the workers ree to organize their tasks however they feel is best. W. L. Gore, creator of the Gore-Tex material, has used a â€Å"lattice† structure since 1958, in which workers â€Å"take on leadership roles based on their ability to gain the respect of peers and to attract followers, † (Silverman, Linebaugh, 2012). Both Gore and Valve recognize that this system leads to a slower process of getting work done initially, as nobody is sure what to do at first. However, in the end employees are working much more optimally to their strengths. Valves commercial success came along early, with their first release actually; Half-Life would be the game of the year for many, if not the game of the decade. However, the success that Half-Life would bring to Valve would come not only from its initial release, but through Valves wise decision to heavily support those who wished to make mods (modifications) for the game. Worldcraft, the level design tool used for Half-Life was released with the game, and a software development kit for the engine, which would later become known as the GoldSrc engine, was released. In 1999, Minh Le and Jess Cliffe would create one of the most popular first person shooter games of all time. Their project Coutner-Strike rapidly became one of the most popular community mods for Half-Life. Valve seized a good opportunity; they proposed hiring the two creators for an official release of the game. This would start what I like to call mutualism between Valve and its following: a symbiotic relationship which is beneficial to both parties. Valve benefits because it is able to cash in on creative work that it didnt have to pay a cent to conceive or create. However, the creators of the mod are not used, given a quick check, and tossed aside. Alongside the notoriety and publicity, which is likely the extent of most modders goals, they are given a foot in the door to the video game industry, and in a fairly respectable door to the industry. Valve continued this tradition of mutualism by hiring the team responsible for a popular quake modification called Team Fortress to create the game as a Half-Life mod known as Team Fortress Classic. Perhaps the most peculiar instance of Valve hiring a team to expand their previous work is in the case of their highly acclaimed game Portal. Many eople are unaware that the games idea started as a student project at DigiPen Institute of Technology called Narbacular Drop (Kuchera, 2012). Upon presenting the game to Valve, the team was apparently hired on the spot by Gabe Newell in order to transfer the essence of the game to Valves Source engine. The important thing here is that the game started out as a student project. It had no budget, no employees, no marketing target. It was made completely for the purpose of showing off an idea. By hiring the team, Valve has the potential to make money on this genius idea, and they did not have to spend any time or money on its conception. Meanwhile, the team that created the game is given the more than sufficient reward (in my opinion, and probably many others) of a starting job at Valve. Now, I understand, game companies looking for and supporting the best of the best in the field is not a brilliantly new concept. The impressive thing about Valve is that they extend this â€Å"mutualism† to outside of the best of the best. You dont have to be a prodigy among modders or game developers. If you have a passion for 3D modeling or creating custom maps, Valve also has an interest in you, and you should have an interest in Valve! For over two years now, Valve has opened up to the creative community for their â€Å"hat-themed war simulator† also known as Team Fortress 2. In past updates, Valve would take their favorite hats, weapons, and maps from the contributions page and simply put them into the game. The contributor got to feel really awesome about his or herself. Then on September 30, 2010 one of the most important updates to Team Fortress 2 was released: The Mann-Conomy update, which introduced an in-game store for weapons and hats. The purchase of any community made item would show some profit to the contributor. Later, â€Å"stamps† became purchasable; players could buy them at the profit of contributors of various maps to the game. This circles back to my whole thought of â€Å"mutualism. † The community members creating these models and maps work with extreme scrutiny, not because they’re being paid or because they’re being told to; they work hard to create something more eye-catching or fascinating than everyone else so that they can get just an ounce of notoriety. Valve can easily reap all of this pro-bono work to make some money off of suckers who want shiny hats (including me), and because of the nflux of high quality community contributions, the employees have to worry much less about creating content themselves. The benefit for the contributors is that sweet notoriety (and a nice portfolio-filler), as well as a good chunk of cash they likely weren’t counting on anyway. In fact, more than three million dollars has been earned in total by community contributors to the game (Antista, 2012)! The contributions page for Team Fortress 2 has now been replaced with the Steam Workshop, which has expanded to include mods and maps for other games such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Civilization V, Portal 2, and Dota 2. At the moment, only contributors for Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2 can hope to see profit from their submissions, but the platform still is a very powerful, centralized step forward in the modding community (which has arguably died down in recent years). It allows for creators of content to be noticed easily by other members of an enormous community. So, Valve has succeeded in empowering the members of the modding, developing, modeling, and mapping communities. But what about the average fan? Well, this is where I believe Valve’s corporate genius really shines. Besides recently being able to say that I’m a student of Game Design and Development, I cannot consider myself any form of developer or contributor of game content right now. However, even I have felt empowered by Valve, have felt truly rewarded by Valve while I was throwing money in their face. Team Fortress 2 is, not only a contender for my favorite game of all time, but what I consider to be one of the most well planned, well executed, well-made, and refreshing games ever made. The game started as a single price-single purchase game, and remained that way for over two years. During this time Valve continued to supply the game with extra content at no cost to the player, and as the amount of content in the game increased, the price actually dropped; its lowest point was $9. 99, disregarding frequent sales. As mentioned, on September 30, 2010, one of the most important updates was introduced to the game, adding the in-game â€Å"Mann Co. Store. † Some people complained, but the reality was that all items exclusive to the store are purely cosmetic or irrelevant to gameplay. Along with introducing the store, Valve also introduced a trading feature between players. Both of these things empowered every player of the game enormously. All new weapons can always be found through random drops in game (and are just as likely to be found as older items). Most of them are able to be â€Å"crafted,† or essentially through the destruction of certain other items. Most of these crafting â€Å"recipes† are completely reasonable in my opinion; regular players will obtain many duplicate items without paying a cent. The addition of trading (and now the ability to trade steam products or items from completely different games) opens near infinite flexibility for those patient enough to find the right trader. The in-game store exists as a means of saving a lot of time, but does not allow for buying of power. Many people will argue that the default weapons a player starts the game with are better than everything else that has been released. â€Å"I think that were going to start to see- maybe not in the next year, but in the near future- games go down the route of smaller up-front experiences and lower prices at the beginning, and then the ability to extend the game through episodic material or future feature material. I think thats a direction were probably heading in. Games are gettting more expensive, and times are tough, and its getting harder to purchase every game you want. So how can we keep people playing and offer them more, but not have to make them break the bank to do it? Its going to be an interesting creative problem for us to solve. † -Jason DeLong, senior producer EA Canada, Gameinformer issue 202 This quote represents a fairly accurate anticipation about player empowerment from two years ago. DeLong believes that episodic content will be the way of the future, reasoning that we need to have multiple ways for people to be able to pay for a game, so that buying a game you’re not even sure you will like is not such a large investment. The point he presents is critical; episodic content is not quite catching on yet, but another flexible business form is: free-to-play. Less than a year after Team Fortress 2 had implemented its in-game store, a surprise announcement was made as part of the June 2011 â€Å"Uber Update. † The game would now be completely free to play for anyone with a working computer. This decision to make this move certainly could not have been an easy one for Valve; switching to free-to-play usually signifies that a game is making a last ditch effort to regain its player base or revenue, neither of which Team Fortress 2 has had a problem with in the past. The decision would end up paying off for everybody. The switch to free-to-play would â€Å"increase revenues by a factor of twelve† for Valve (Curtis, 2012). This would also empower anyone with a computer that could run the game; there was nothing stopping them now. It is crazy to think, but in this case, giving people stuff for free yielded significant returns. The success that Team Fortress 2 has had as a free-to-play game is an excellent case of empowering and almost manipulating customers to gain revenue. Valve did nothing immoral, they gave players a lot of choice, but they gave players so many choices that it became difficult to say no to every single one. I found a highly intriguing blog post from â€Å"The Psychology of Video Games† by Jamie Madigan discussing the mind tricks behind the â€Å"Mann Co. Store;† in short, it brings up two great points. First of all, the item store has implemented a feature letting players test out certain weapons for a week, and putting them at a 25 percent discount for this duration. Valve is in no way forcing you to buy the item; letting you try it out is a pure generosity. However, the sudden discount is tempting along with something the writer calls â€Å"the endowment effect† which essentially states that feeling that you own something makes you value that thing more. If you’ve already tried out an item in a few games, it might seem difficult to part with, when you could buy it for less than a buck! The other point that the writer brings up is that by selling some items at seemingly ridiculously high prices (a ring that makes an announcement to the entire player base for 100 dollars) it makes lower prices seem trivial. One cool hat you really want might be seven bucks, but there’s another decent one next to it for only two. If you imagine how much more money you could be blowing, it makes you feel less guilty for spending a couple dimes or dollars on a nice hat or weapon (Madigan, 2012). The final topic I want to touch on is something I find rather impressive. Valve’s efforts to empower its patrons may well be an effective counter to piracy. This is important to recognize when most companies try to deal with piracy through extreme force, which falls under the category of telling people what to do which will often just provoke them more. Robin Walker, Valve employee and creator of Team Fortress, has stated that countering piracy is best done by attempting to offer benefits that pirates cannot (How to beat pirates, 2011). Obviously, the largest benefit when it comes to Team Fortress 2 is being able to play online with everyone else who has the licensed game, but Robin also points out that the continuous updates to all of Valve’s games would be tedious to access frequently if you pirated the games. Steam itself is also a great asset. There are many who justifiably criticize Steam for its strict digital rights management; namely, it is difficult to play a Steam-purchased game outside of Steam. However, Steam itself is still a great tool for centralizing your gaming experience, staying connected with friends you play games with or even just regular friends. Steam is the easiest and fastest way for me and my best friend to see when we are online and able to talk. It provides powerful tools for creating community content and discovering indie games. The newest community update shows popular screenshots and discussion topics on the community page of each game. Such a centralized and empowered community is something that those who pirate games would have to work very hard to achieve. Some people have their complaints about Valve, and I cant say that Valve is anywhere near perfect. However, I cannot think of any other company that has inspired me on such a deep level. Firstly, Valve is an enormous artistic inspiration; just when I think my creativity is dead; Team Fortress 2 and Portal 2 remind me of how limitless the game industry can be. Second, Valve is a landmark for success. But theres something else; theres just this feeling I get that every person working for Valve has a sense of inherent good. And that is why I have no problem dumping buckets of money on them. Thats the best way I can wrap it up, even if it sounds so stupid. Valve just knows how people work. You dont need to be a psychologist; you just have to have some common sense about what makes people happy. I look to Valve as an inspiration because I want to be creative, I want to be successful, I want people to do what I want them to do (like throw money at me), but I want to make people happy as well.

Lone Wolf free essay sample

Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you. My mother—a single parent—works as a civil servant of Bhutan: due to her occupational hazards, I was entitled to attend boarding school and travel alone at a young age. Ever since I started to attend boarding school—in the sixth grade I have been travelling alone from Bhutan to Calcutta to Chennai. Normally, a parent would not succumb to such an act, but ever since I could so much as think, I knew I was not a normal child. I stopped giving in to horror movies once I realized they were fake, addendum: the fake 100 Ngultrum bills my mother would hide under my pillow whenever I lost a tooth. I could understand most of the complex and foul languages used in conversations unlike my other classmates—maybe it was the outcome of the vast array of books that have kept me company in my lonely flights to, and fro, Bhutan and India. We will write a custom essay sample on Lone Wolf or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page I was more mature than the others my age. School had just ended and I was on my way back to Bhutan. From Chennai, I had to stop by Calcutta and take the first plane to Bhutan in the morning, which was around twelve hours away. Normally, the airport would allow transit passengers waiting long flights to take shelter indoors, but on this particular day, due to certain circumstances—to this day I still don’t understand—I was told to wait outside. You would normally think it being cruel to have an innocent thirteen year-old boy standing out†¦ but it is India. I was anxious, the battery on my phone died due to excessive gaming to pass the long waiting hours in the airport, I could not call anyone. This was the first time this had happened to me and I felt constricted. I checked my wallet and noticed I had a few thousand rupees, which equaled to less than $75 at the time. I sat down on my bags, and thought of the possibilities that might have me survive the night. I asked and begged the guards to let me in, I showed them my tickets and my passport, yet they refused and told me to wait until the morning. This has never happened before. Had I grown or looked older? I got frustrated and so I asked one of the—with the little Hindi I know—guards for a cheap hotel anywhere nearby. He introduced me to this shabby taxi driver with crooked brown teeth, ragged clothes and grey hair, almost balled. He took me to a hotel, ten minutes drive away from the airport and charged me 500 rupees. I knew I was being ripped off, probably because of my age, but I did not want to offend them in anyway as I had reserved them to pick me up the next day for the same price. The hotel was in the shadiest part of town, pitch black with drunks walking around swearing abruptly in Hindi. I grabbed a hold of my items, checked into the hotel (which was 1200 rupees for the night) and locked myself in. The fan above my head creaked boisterously, shrouding the unceasing barks of dogs and the unending noise of drunken men enjoying their evening debauchery. The lemon yellow paint was peeling off the wet walls and the fan looked like it was going to drop. I lay on my bed anxious and wondering how I got myself into this sketchy situation. I wanted to go home. The next morning, the taxi driver had never left the area, as he seemed to have just slept in his car. He carried my luggage and placed them into the trunk and I jumped in on the front seat, as there seemed to be a drunken man sleeping on the back. The driver sat in the front seat, trying to converse with me in Hindi despite knowing that I know very little of the language as he drove me to the airport. As I left for the airport and headed home, along with a sense of relief, I also felt proud of myself. These isolated experiences show you that in the end you have to depend on yourself and how important it is to have a cool head and your wits about you. My sense of independence may not have been entirely derived from this stand-alone experience but it is sharply etched in my memory and as an effect has made me a braver and stronger person. As an unintended consequence, I had to take a big risk and in the end I believe I handled it very well. Independence means making strong and alert decisions even in the most harrowing of times.

Free Essays on Raymond Carver

Raymond Carver An American short-story writer and poet, Raymond Carver’s style of writing was called minimalism. Carver himself did not like the label, â€Å"because it ‘smacks of smallness of vision and execution.’† (Stull 8) Raymond Clevie Carver, nicknamed Junior, Frog, and Doc, was born on May 25, 1938, in Clatskanie, a mill town on the Columbia River in Oregon. His father, Clevie Raymond Carver (â€Å"C.R.†), rode the rails from Arkansas to Washington state during the dust-bowl days of the 1930’s. C.R., a sawmill worker, was an alcoholic who died at fifty-three. Growing up at home, Carver’s father used to tell him stories about his own hunting and fishing exploits, and about his grandfather, who had fought in the Civil War for both sides. His mother, Ella Casey Carver, supplemented the family income by working as a waitress and retail clerk. When Raymond was three, the family moved to Yakima, Washington, a town of twenty thousand near the Cascades, where he grew up. Carver went to a local school in Yakima, and graduated in 1956. He was a fan of Mickey Spillane novels and Sports Afield and Outdoor Life. Soon after graduating, Carver married his pregnant, sixteen-year-old girlfriend named Maryann Burk. During the early years of their marriage, Carver worked as a janitor, a laborer at a sawmill, and as a salesman. Maryann worked as a waitress, a salesperson, and an administrative assistant and teacher. The Carver’s had two children who, although having a rough childhood, eventually both graduated from college. In 1958, Carver moved his family to Paradise, California and enrolled in Chico State College as a part-time student. Here he takes a creative writing course taught by John Gardner. This is where he first becomes interested in writing. In 1960 Carver transfers to Humboldt State College and published his first story, 'Pastoral,' in the Western Humanites Review, and his first poem, 'The Brass ... Free Essays on Raymond Carver Free Essays on Raymond Carver Raymond Carver An American short-story writer and poet, Raymond Carver’s style of writing was called minimalism. Carver himself did not like the label, â€Å"because it ‘smacks of smallness of vision and execution.’† (Stull 8) Raymond Clevie Carver, nicknamed Junior, Frog, and Doc, was born on May 25, 1938, in Clatskanie, a mill town on the Columbia River in Oregon. His father, Clevie Raymond Carver (â€Å"C.R.†), rode the rails from Arkansas to Washington state during the dust-bowl days of the 1930’s. C.R., a sawmill worker, was an alcoholic who died at fifty-three. Growing up at home, Carver’s father used to tell him stories about his own hunting and fishing exploits, and about his grandfather, who had fought in the Civil War for both sides. His mother, Ella Casey Carver, supplemented the family income by working as a waitress and retail clerk. When Raymond was three, the family moved to Yakima, Washington, a town of twenty thousand near the Cascades, where he grew up. Carver went to a local school in Yakima, and graduated in 1956. He was a fan of Mickey Spillane novels and Sports Afield and Outdoor Life. Soon after graduating, Carver married his pregnant, sixteen-year-old girlfriend named Maryann Burk. During the early years of their marriage, Carver worked as a janitor, a laborer at a sawmill, and as a salesman. Maryann worked as a waitress, a salesperson, and an administrative assistant and teacher. The Carver’s had two children who, although having a rough childhood, eventually both graduated from college. In 1958, Carver moved his family to Paradise, California and enrolled in Chico State College as a part-time student. Here he takes a creative writing course taught by John Gardner. This is where he first becomes interested in writing. In 1960 Carver transfers to Humboldt State College and published his first story, 'Pastoral,' in the Western Humanites Review, and his first poem, 'The Brass ...

Paleo-discharge of the Maumee floods Research Paper

Paleo-discharge of the Maumee floods - Research Paper Example The results positively indicate the extent of the damage and predicts the next step in solving the problem. Introduction The problem is finding ways of restoring the watershed to a state that would be useful to the inhabitants living in the surrounding. This study is aimed at identifying opportunities and issues in the process of establishing the viability of the study. The main subject of the study is the deposits that were formed by the glacial activities. They include the Fort Wayne Moraine, and the Wabash. The Wabash was formed as a result of the activities that followed the melt water that into the St. Joseph and St. Mary’s Rivers. The two streams converged at the western edge of Fort Wayne Moraine. They drained a bigger discharge that created a valley that was called the Wabash Erie Channel. On a personal observation of the site there is feasibly in the thickness of disjointed deposits that are in the southern and the northern sides of the Maumee River watershed. The hei ghts go from 50 to 100 feet above the ground. This evidence of the occurrence of glacial activity in the northern part of the Maumee River. The bedrock holding these features is controlled by the Cincinnati Arch on the southern part and the Michigan Basin the northern area. The study tries to measure the magnitude of the water discharge that has been impacted by the Maumee River. Methods A task in the lab is to figure out the flood elevation from topographic maps and imagery near Lafayette, Indiana. In order to do this, I make 5 cross sections (Battleground, Americus, upstream of Delphi, Purdue and Lafayette, and Independence) from the topographic maps, with a vertical exaggeration of 10X. The scale of my cross section is, horizontally 1cm = 800ft, and vertically 1 cm = 80ft. There are two different ways I used to estimate discharge to complete this project. The first one is using Manning’s equation, and the second one is using the equation in dam breakout floods. In this par t, I am going to give detailed explanations for each of the equations, and explanation of flood reconstruction. Method1: Discharge estimations, whether of modern floods or ancient floods, requires that you determine both the average velocity of the water as well as the cross sectional area. The overall equation is: Q = u * A Where Q is the estimated discharge, u is the average velocity of the flow, and A is the cross sectional area. The average velocity can be estimated using Manning’s equation: u = RH2/3 * S1/2 * n-1 Where the RH is the hydraulic radius, S is the water surface slope, and n is the channel roughness coefficient. The cross-sectional area (A) is the area of flowing water as measured from bank to bank. Requires both a channel cross section, which I constructed, and an estimate of water depth (d) for calculation. The hydraulic radius (RH) is a physical characteristic of a streambed. It is the cross-sectional area (A) of the channel divided by the wetted perimeter. The wetted perimeters the length of the wetted edge of a channel cross section containing flowing water (i.e. the total perimeter minus the water surface). The water surface slope is the angle of the water surface relative to the horizontal. This angle can be found by measuring the change in water surface elevation between two points along the stream. Roughness coefficien

Industrial And Organizational Psychology Assignment

Industrial And Organizational Psychology - Assignment Example So it can be said that in this field the risk of job shortage is less, but competition level is high and in order to receive a handsome salary skill needs to be enhanced in customer dealing and convincing for which the soft skilled need to be brushed. I have been working in a phone shop for the past 2 years as a customer consultant (sales) in Carphone warehouse. This signifies that I am competent in dealing with customers, have a decent presentation skill and excellent communication skill (Rao, 2009). SECTION I: Personal Analysis In this section of the study I would be discussing my personal skill that would be the stepping stone towards a gap analysis. As far as the basic skills are the concern, I have already mentioned that my verbal communications are excellent, so this assists me to fluently interact with my customers and deal with their queries. I am also equipped with a decent presentation skill, which also helps me to demonstrate all the features of the phones to my customersà ¢â‚¬â„¢ pretty well (Randhawa, 2007). ... 2.1 Gap Analysis In this section I would be conducting a gap analysis so as to judge where I stand. The ideal skill sets of a sales consultant would be my guiding star and I would be examining my skills against those, which will give me an idea of my drawbacks. Sales executives should have proper knowledge regarding the changes in the field he/ she is working in. They should have the knowledge to assess the statistics related to sales so that they can predict future sales. They should have the ability to understand the strategies of the competitors, so as to employ better strategies to achieve success (Kaila, 2006; Talwar, 2006). If I consider my skill and compare them with this, I can say that I do understand statistics and can assess the future sales to be. I have immense interest in gadgets, so I explore phones thoroughly when they come to the store. This assists me to explain to my customers in a better way as I can interpret where they might face problems.

How dialysis treatment for kidney failure relies on an understanding Essay

How dialysis treatment for kidney failure relies on an understanding of the principles of diffusion - Essay Example Maher states that an infection or physical injury to the kidneys can affect the dialyzing ability of the kidneys. A malfunction of the human kidneys can lead to the accumulation of poisonous molecules such as urea in blood (Maher, 1989). A toxic level of urea in blood is fatal. A dialyzing machine works like the kidneys. The difference between a dialysing machine and the human kidneys is the reverse dialysis, which returns small molecules like glucose to the body. The natural kidneys perform endocrine function, which is not possible in the dialysis machine (Maher, 1989). Chung Lee (2006) explains that dialysis is a short-term treatment option to sustain the lives of patients waiting for a kidney transplant. In 2006, research showed that in the globally there were over 1 million patients dependent on dialysis. In the United States 506,256, citizens were under dialysis treatment. In the United Kingdom data from the UK renal registry indicated that around 45, 484 adults were under dialysis treatment. There are two dialysis procedures available for patients experiencing renal problems: hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. Hemodialysis involves pumping the patient’s blood through an artificial dialysis membrane present in the dialysis machine. The waste products in the patient’s blood diffuse through the membrane to the dialysate. This movement occurs due to the presence of a concentration gradient between the two media. In peritoneal dialysis, the peritoneum in the abdominal cavity works as the dialysis membrane. The peritoneum has a dense capillary network, which makes it a suitable media for the dialysis procedure. The dialysate is pumped to the abdominal cavity via a catheter. In peritoneal dialysis, toxic substances diffuse to the dialysate through the blood capillaries semi permeable membrane (Maher, 1989). Cheng explains that a patient can self-administer peritoneal dialysis.

Battle Of Thermopylae Was Fought History Essay

Battle Of Thermopylae Was Fought History Essay The main source that described the battle of Thermopylae is the book VII of Herodotus. He was a Greek historian, and in his book he generally favors the Greeks. But he also writes about the greatness of the Persian Empire. There are also some doubts in the story told by Herodotus. For example, in one part Herodotus states that 2.6 million people were the total Persian armies in the battle. But modern scholars reject this claim and they state that the figures given are unrealistic and it is as the result of miscalculations or exaggerations that sources put to favor the victor side. King Xeroxes was so frustrated because his father, Darius who attacked the Greeks in 490 BC, shamelessly defeated in the battle of Marathon. After the battle Darius wanted to reinforce and attack the Greeks again, but the rebellion in Egypt got his attentions off the Greeks and before he could deal with the Egyptian, he died in 486 BC. Xeroxes then crushed the Egyptian and turned his attention to the Greeks. He started his long term plan, which lasted for couple of years, to be prepared for the war. At that time even the Greeks knew that the battle is inevitable. Xeroxes decided that Hellespont, which is a narrow strait, connecting the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara, is the way that he could get to Greece. So he ordered that Hellespont should be bridged by ships so his army could cross to Europe. By early 480 the massive army of Persia was ready to invade Europe, and the preparation was complete. The Persian army crossed Hellespont on two bridges which were made of ships. Athenians were aware of the Persian threat and they were preparing for the war with Persians in the middle of 480 BC. It was at 482 when Themistocles, who was an Athenian politician and general, suggested that the best way to defend against the Persian is by building triremes, which were an ancient vessel and a type of galley. But the Athenians did not have enough workers to defend against the enormous army of Persia so they asked the other Greek states for help. A congress met in the late autumn of 481 BC, and an alliance was formed between the Greek states. The congress was very important and remarkable because some of the states were in war at that time, so the alliance helps the union between the Greeks. The congress met again in the spring of 480, and this time they decided to block Xeroxes advance to Europe. The congress sends the army containing 10,000 hoplites, which were citizen-soldiers of Ancient Greek city-states who were primarily armed as spearmen and fought in phalanx formation, to The Vale of Tempe, which is a gorge in northern Thessaly, Greece, located between Olympus to the north and Ossa to the south. However the planed did not work and the army retreated because Alexander I of Macedon warned them that the Persian army is overwhelming and they could bypass them easily. The Persian army was marching through Greece with the help of Greek spy in august of 480 BC. They were in luck because by the law Spartan army were forbidden to have military activity because of a festival called Carneia. It was also the Olympic Games season and it would have been doubly sacrilegious for the whole Spartan army to march to any war. Under this circumstances king Leonidas took 300 men and around 1,000 Phoceans, which were the support troops, with the orders of the Ephors, leaders of ancient Sparta, and shared power with the Spartan kings to launch an expedition and gather as many Greek soldier as possible and await the arrival of the main Spartan army. Herodotus told a legend that Leonidas consulted Oracle at Delphi, the priestess at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, before and the oracle told Leonidas that he is going to certain death, so Leonidas only took 300 men with a living son. By the time Leonidas arrived at Thermopylae, he had more than 7,000 men contingents from various cities. He chose to defend the narrowest part of the pass of Thermopylae called the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“middle gateà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  because there was a defensive wall constructed by Phocians in there. He was afraid that mountain track nearby Thermopylae could be used to outflank the pass, so he put around 1,000 men on the heights. Finally, the Persian army led by the god-king Xeroxes approached Thermopylae. The total number is unknown and Herodotus number is unrealistic. Modern scholars estimate the total number of Persian army had been around 70,000 to 300,000. At first Xeroxes wanted to negotiate with Leonidas, so he sent an emissary to him. Leonidas refused the offer of Persians to resettle in another area and in a famous response he said: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“come and take themà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . After that the war became inevitable and after four days, which Xeroxes thought the Greeks were going to disperse, he sent his troops to kill Leonidas and crush his army. At the first day of the battle, Xeroxes ordered five thousand archers to attack the Greeks with their arrows, but the bronze shield of the Greeks deflected the arrows and eventually no one got hurt. After Xeroxes realized that the archers could not to any damage to Leonidas army, he ordered Medes and Cissians, which were around 10,000 soldiers to attack and bring prisoners before him. They Spartans and other Greeks crushed them with an easy victory. Xerxes then shocked by the result sent his best troops, the Immortals. They defeated horribly and had no more success than the other group. The reason Spartans could defeat the Persian army so easily is the tactical advantage at Thermopylae. One of the reasons was that Persians were too many on numbers and the battlefield was too tight, and the only weapons that they had were daggers and short spears for hand to hand combat. Persians were not fighting the way they had been trained and they were not equipped for such close fighting so the Greek army wiped them out easily. Another reason could be that Greeks were fighting for their lands, and defending their homes and their family so they had more intangible edge. On the other hand, half of the Persian army was slaves and to make them fight the Greeks the commanders lashed them with whips. On the second day of the battle, Xeroxes again sent some troops to attack the Greeks. After Greeks drew them off with light injuries, Xeroxes stopped and withdrew to his camp without any plan. However, everything changed at the end of the second day. His name was Ephialtes, which coming to mean nightmare in the Greek language, and he was a Trachinian traitor. Greed and rewards made him to betray the Greek army and informed Xeroxes of the mountain path around Thermopylae. After that a Persian army under command of a general named Hydarnes attacked the pass. The 1,000 Phocians guarding the pass were surprised by the Persian attack and they retreat to higher grounds to regroup after a brief resistance. However the Persian army advanced through the pass and did not chase them. On the third and final day of the battle,

The Madonnas of Echo Park by Brando Skyhorse :: Immigration, Immigrants

â€Å"Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.† -- President Franklin D. Roosevelt Throughout the course of my life, I have always encountered individuals wanting to better their economic situation especially those within my community. Those who come from impoverished communities in other countries risk their lives and lifetime savings to come to the United States hoping that one day they will regain everything that they lost. Their only motivation to come to this country is to be able to provide their family with basic necessities and in order to do this, they must work two or more jobs that pay at minimum wage and are taken for granted. However, many individuals do not see this side of the story and categorize immigrants as unambitious people. In order to be completely aware of what immigrants truly go through and how they succeed in life, one must be willing to place themselves in their shoes and hear his/her story. We must acknowledge that the hands of these people work in back breaking jobs in order to sustain their families. While some Americans may be agains t immigrants arriving to the United States in search of a better life and the American Dream, in The Madonnas of Echo Park, Brando Skyhorse further reveals that immigrants are exploited as cheap labor, and although they contribute greatly to the everyday function of American industry, they are quite invisible. Mexican immigrants in the United States are willing to work hard and long hours throughout the day regardless of the amount of sleep or rest they may get. Conversely, this is not how Efren Mendoza, a public city bus driver, views Mexicans and he believes they are not motivated to achieve things in life. One would assume that he would understand how difficult it is for immigrants to assimilate in a new foreign country without knowing anyone or anything here, but he is not on their side and it is somewhat hypocritical of him because he himself is Mexican. It is as though Efren sees his own people as invisible individuals because he does not acknowledge all their hard work and sacrifices they may have gone through in order to arrive in the United States. He further proves his insincerity when he mentions that the â€Å"new wetbacks [are] picky about what jobs they’ll do [and that they] half-ass [the] work† that they are given to do (77).

Quotation essay Essay

â€Å"We never appreciate the value of water until the well runs dry†. The words in this quote, written by Benjamin Franklin, invite the reader to take a deeper more insightful glance into how possessions and people aren’t appreciated until the realization of their importance or value. Through literature, the author uses symbolism, comparisons, and theme to evaluate the importance of appreciation. The author, Benjamin Franklin, portrays meaning throughout the quote which relates to appreciating what you have. People don’t realize what they have until it’s gone. When it’s gone, then you realize the importance of what you had. In a specific case in which the possession is a valued item, you tend to realize how much better off you were once you had it. Also, if what the quote was referring to specifically was a person, you sometimes realize you love or miss that person more than you expected to. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a death, it could be someone leaving a job or moving. For example, I had an apple iPod. I didn’t really pay much attention to it. When I lost it, then I realized its value and importance to me. This quote is also based on taking every little chance you get. Taking risks could mean something as simple as trying new things. The author, Ben Franklin portrays different meanings throughout the quote which relates to appreciat ing what you have and taking risks. The water and the â€Å"well runs dry† are two symbols that represent a friend, family member, or possession that is important to you. Franklin uses the water to represent the value of that specific person or possession to you. The well is used to symbolize the source of your opportunities. Referring back to what I mentioned about the subject being a person, this loved one  could also be the source of your opportunities or education. â€Å"Until the well runs dry† could refer to that person leaving and taking an opportunity with them. For example, the water could be a teacher that’s trying to help you get into a good high school. But, you don’t think you need their help. If that person leaves and moves on, you might not have as good as an opportunity like you did before when they were helping you. You then start to realize that there help was very important. Other than being a person, the water could relate to a possession. As I mentioned before, when I lost my iPod, I realized its importance. The water and well could symbolize the wealthy versus the poor. In this situation the well, source of opportunities, would be different. Therefore, those two symbols fully symbolize the parting of a loved one, a lost possession, or an important opportunity up until the realization of its true value and meaning you. The author uses the comparison of the value of water to the well. He does this to explain that people take opportunities as well as other people for granted. With this comparison, the subject must be an individual. For example, to a friendship situation, a friend could be taken for granted if you assume that he will always be ready to help you out even if you aren’t always ready to help him or her. Another example is an employee could be taken for granted by an employer, who makes no effort (such as raises in pay) to reward the employers long and faithful service. The theme of this quote is appreciation, which is basically similar to the meaning. Another theme that can be analyzed from the quote is taking people for granted. Taken for granted is like when you have something really special or important but you don’t notice it. Also, grabbing opportunities while you can plays a big part in taking things for granted. For example, I wanted to join the recycling team. But, I kept stalling and not filling out the paper. As a result, the opportunity passed me by and I could no longer join. Franklin’s words personally relate to human experiences. As I stated earlier, I had an iPod but didn’t realize how valuable it was to me until I misplaced it. This quote relates to life in different ways. Taking advantage of a  parent or teacher is one of these ways. For example, I depend on your mom or dad for almost everything. If something happens and I’m mad at them, I sometimes wish things you don’t mean. If they unexpectedly leave, I will then realize the importance of their role in my life. Franklin’s words connect to human experiences in various ways. This quote by Ben Franklin does not only relate to personal experience but also connects to the community + world. It connects to the community because people in a community or learning environment could take advantage of a teacher, or appreciate them more when they’re gone. For example, at my dance ministry we have a dance coordinator, Ms. Ferdinand. Sometimes some of the girls don’t really agree with her decisions. But, if one day she decided to leave the ministry in the hands of someone else, they may not like it. That person may be very different from what we are used to. Another example could be some students hating a teacher. These examples have the same concept. If the teacher leaves they might not like the one that replaces them. When I was at dream yesterday, a student said â€Å"Is Mr. Sue, the math teacher, coming back?† The English teacher answered â€Å"Probably not†. The student then went on to say† I like him better than the new teacher†. The class then agreed with him. But, most of the kids in the class didn’t really like Mr. Sue when he was around. They then realized that his method of teaching was more understandable than the one we have now. The English teacher then said† you never appreciate the value of water, until the well runs dry. Think about that† I said to her â€Å"I am analyzing that quote in ELA†. Therefore, they learned that they didn’t really appreciate Mr. Sue until he was gone. â€Å"We never appreciate the value of water until the well runs dry†. The words in this quote written by Benjamin Franklin invite the reader to take a deeper more insightful glance into how possessions and people aren’t appreciated until the realization of their importance or value. A final example could be that when famous singers die, there music gets even more popular. This quote by Benjamin Franklin portrays meaning with relates to grabbing opportunities, appreciation, and taking things for granted.

Dream Act Essay

On November 6, 2012, Marylanders supported Question 4 by a margin of 58%-42%. Governor Martin O’Malley supported the Dream Act and was an advocate for it to pass. The Act was originally passed in Marcy 2011, but was put back on the ballot for the election as a referendum. The DREAM Act includes two major developments. The first part is granting legal status for illegal immigrants who entered the United States before the age of sixteen. The second development allows the immigrants to attend public universities and gives in-state tuition. Under the first major provision, the DREAM Act would allow unauthorized immigrant youth to obtain the status of Conditional Permanent Resident for an initial period of six years, and then apply for permanent residence and eventual citizenship, if they have met certain criteria. The law gives undocumented immigrants a break on in-state tuition rates if they attend a Maryland high school for three years and if they or their parents can show they filed state income taxes during that time. The effects on college acceptances for American citizens will be effected by the act applies to access to community college first, which is open enrollment, so no slots of Maryland students are at risk. Students who complete 60 credits at a community college and qualify for acceptance to a four-year public college/university also do not influence other in-state applicants. The legislation specifically addresses this issue by indicating the in-state: out-of-state ratio maintained at each college/university should count students admitted under the Dream Act towards the out-of-state allotment. Students admitted under the Dream Act cannot be counted in the ratio of in-state students and therefore are not taking seats at our four-year institutions from other Marylanders. In the United States, the Dream Act calls for an increase in state aid for community colleges of $778,400 for the next fiscal year. The fiscal note does not reflect estimates of how this act will assist in the collection of tax dollars or a net increase in students paying tuition who would not have otherwise been able to afford and attend. When I voted on November 6, I voted in favor of the Dream Act. In my opinion, I feel that if immigrants have been in the United States and have  been paying taxes should be allowed to go to a university. The process of becoming a United States citizen is a long and extremely difficult one. I think that every person deserves a chance if they are working for the right to become a part of society. In 2003, Barbara Grutter alleged that her Equal Protection rights were violated when the University of Michigan Law School’s attempt to gain a diverse student body resulted in the denial of her admission’s application. Getting into law school is not an easy task to be admitted to, and Grutter felt that she was not being treated equally. The Supreme Court disagreed and held that institutions of higher education have a legitimate interest in promoting diversity. Grutter applied with a 3.8 undergraduate GPA and an LSAT score of 161. She was denied admission. Additionally, officials must look beyond grades and scores to so-called â€Å"soft variables,† such as recommenders’ enthusiasm, the quality of the undergraduate institution and the applicant’s essay, and the areas and difficulty of undergraduate course selection. I feel like the Supreme Court was correct. The ability to have a diverse class is crucial. Colleges and universities have a legitimate interest in promoting diversity.

Formal Systematic Learning Is Less Important Than Informal Learning

Formal Systematic Learning Is Less Important Than Informal Learning Formal Systematic Learning Is Less Important Than Informal Learning. Discuss This Statement With – Term Paper Example Informal vs. Formal learning The growth of informal methods of learning has been an interesting phenomenon over the past few decades and is being increasingly embraced within institutions of learning, irrespective of various theories and studies that govern the principles of learning. In many respects, people learn from one another to perform and apply many principles and methodologies in an informal fashion (Jay Cross, 2006).Although the term ‘Informal learning’ seems rather recent, it has in fact been around for many centuries. The many instances of legends being retold through storytelling or the concept of vocational training that focuses on providing hands-on experience are all examples of informal teaching. Although it has stood the test time, learning and educational institutions of the modern world, which prefer to instruct using formal techniques, have been rather reluctant towards adopting informal methods, sometimes even in a partial manner (Bob Hoffman, 2005) . To them, the occupancy rates of classes or the amount of students who passed a course are worthy statistics although they lack the necessary luster or the depth to determine the reasons for variant learning amongst students despite being in the same class.Several qualitative traits such as leadership, motivation and decision-making, which are essential in today’s competitive world, transcend formal educational barriers and some of the largest companies today prefer to train future leaders and managers through practical training and challenging assignments, which help nurture the necessary qualities to withstand such battles. The advent of technology over the years, which has seen people rely more and more on using electronic means to learn, communicate and do much of their daily tasks, is also taking the discussion of informal learning to a completely new level. Increasing number of people prefer to learn through videos and exchange electronic learning material. Finally, th e relevance of informal teaching gains prominence simply from the advent of the Internet, where much of the knowledge is shared through the web in the form of documents, video and websites (John Garrick, 1998).References1. Jay Cross (2006), Informal learning: rediscovering the natural pathways that inspire innovation and performance. New York: John Wiley.2. Bob Hoffman (2005), Informal Learning. American Society for Training and Development.3. John Garrick (1998), Informal learning in the workplace: unmasking human resource development. London: Routledge.

The use of surveying in mapping features within the physical Landscape Essay

The use of surveying in mapping features within the physical Landscape - Essay Example vides valuable botanical and faunal samples to compare with the mapping images to make it possible to arrive at right conclusions whether different land use systems were in vogue in these landscapes. These scenarios inevitably necessitated field surveys to either support, or to provide certainty to the veracity of digital mapping data bases. The science of land forms with emphasis on their origin, evolution, form, and distribution across the physical landscape is called geomorphology. The techniques employed to study geomorphology and landscape features include aerial photographic interpretation, field study of soil profiles; off-site sampling and analysis of extensive Paleolithic items; paleo-biological analysis, and drawing of paleo-geography. Ultimately, the entire study will be placed within the given physical landscape using images along with GIS (Geographical Information System) systems. The study of features within the physical landscape includes investigation of its structure, development, and character. Geomorphologists, including many European practitioners have employed several methods to research and develop methods to illustrate features of earth’s physical surface. In 1899, Albert Heim undertook a balloon flight over the Alps to conduct observations and take aerial photographs to study the landscape . In spite of all attempts by physiographers to provide qualitative descriptions and diagrams to provide accurate Maps provide historical information about landscape changes. Today’s many landscapes are the result of factors like river corrections. The hydraulic works have completely modified the geomorphological behavior of rivers that allowed extensive agriculture and later on commercial activities and urbanization. The analysis of landscape changes cannot be undertaken by using historical maps alone without field survey. After all, maps are only representations of earlier realities and are static; they do not take landscape dynamics into account.

Atmospheric Chemistry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Atmospheric Chemistry - Essay Example The bottom line of the mission is to study Arctic zone depletion aside from understanding atmospheric phenomena, the effects of biomass burning to the atmosphere, and measuring the size and density of aerosols and Polar stratospheric Clouds (PSC). The planet where we thrive in is unique among the planets in our solar system. We can say that its composition is fairly simple especially if we will just confine our sight on the blanket of gases enveloping our lithosphere. Yet, beyond this simplicity are the more complex and dynamic chemical processes which support the ultimate existence of life. However, as ages pass by, as man become more inclined to motivations and innovations, it is clear that this green planet is in grave danger. The effects of climate change and global warming is of great concern among countries nowadays. In an article by Naomi Oreskes entitled BEYOND THE IVORY TOWER: The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change, it is pointed out that climate change issues still baffle scientists and that continuous researches are needed for this to be well understood. However, the connection of climate change with human activities cannot be denied. And it is man's utmost responsibility to give back to the Earth that nurtures him. Thus, there are steps needed to be taken, missions to be launched, and the voyage goes on. August 12, 2003, on board the Canadian satellite SCISAT-1 is a satel... Indeed, this shows that issues concerning the Earth are of everyone's great concern and interest. The ACE was launched at an inclination of 74, 650 km from the Earth's surface. This position allows the satellite to gather data from the tropical, mid-latitude and Polar Regions. The ACE mission includes the exploration of the relationship between atmospheric chemistry and climate change, the understanding of stratospheric phenomena that affects the distribution and the decline of ozone, studying the effects of biomass burning, measuring the size and density of aerosols and polar stratospheric clouds (PSC). The bottom line of the mission, however, is focused on the atmospheric ozone problem which is being currently experienced not just in the Antarctic but also in the Arctic region of the globe. For these to be possible, the mission carried with it two sophisticated instruments that are capable of obtaining the needed measurements and data. ACE-FTS (Fourier Transform Spectrometer) is a kind of Fourier Transform instrument that measures the vertical distribution of trace gases and temperature. Skoog et al., describes that Fourier Transform instruments are characterized but their great speed, high resolution, high sensitivity, and excellent wavelength precision and accuracy. A Fourier Transform spectrometer is capable of detecting all the wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation simultaneously and all the time. A device called a Michelson interferometer makes it possible for Fourier Transform instruments to precisely measure the wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation. On the other hand, another instrument called the MAESTRO (measurement of Aerosol Extinction in the

None Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 14

None - Essay Example This normally gives room to committing fallacious reasoning whilst emotional temperament fosters it. Worldwide mainly imply to cognitive network of prevailing beliefs, attitudes, habits, memories, values and corresponding supplementary elements that are normally conditions and renders quietly meaningful the world that people dwell (Patrick, 156-198). Moreover, worldview normally emerges unobtrusively and intuitively from the pervasive influences such as cultures, language, sex and religion, politics, social and economic status. It influence normally manifest itself when an individual grow older via shaping forces of education and experience. Five characteristics of critical thinking in movie 12 are argument analysis, morality such as persuasion and obedience, manipulation, fallacies versus sound reasoning and corresponding effective Critical thinker (Patrick, 156-198). Conversely, five characteristic of uncritical thinking include contradictory perspectives, prejudices, predispositions that are manly based on the underlying barrier within their decision making and contradictory personalities that normally enrich prevailing actions and corresponding decisions of an individual. I would want argument analysis on the prevailing jury in case I was the defendant. The jury ought to embrace analyses of every the underlying in order make dependable arguments and correspondingly determine that the conclusion is imperfect based on the inappropriate reasoning via pointing out prevailing inconsistences within the judgment. Moreover, deductive reasoning will also aid in development of logic within the underlying case. Argument analysis method normally cast criticisms on the underlying second point and subsequent points via thoroughly analyzing every component

Compare and Contrast Essay Example for Free

Compare and Contrast Essay In the sixteenth century, a group of English protestant who practised a more strictly disciplined Christian lifestyle were named Puritans; they immigrated to Salem also called New England in the purpose to establish a society of their own after suffering from religious persecution in England. Arthur Millers play The Crucible and Celia Reess novel Witch Child are both similar as their story evolve around this same Puritan society of the seventeenth century in Salem, Massachusetts. The restrained and rigid Puritan lifestyle is explored in detail in both texts in which people were expected to work hard and repress their emotions and opinions. The Crucible relates very closely to Witch Child in its portrayal of a main theme within Puritanism: the witchcraft hysteria that marked the early History of America. The first similarity between Witch Child and Crucible is the portrayal of a strict Puritan religion. They were so strict that they accepted every word of the Bible as totally accurate and would not question its interpretation further, an example would be the famous Thou shalt not permit a sorceress to live (2. Moses 22, 17) upon which most of the European witch trials had already been conducted. People were repressed, as entertainment and pleasure were heinous sins in which cosmetics, games, theatres and dancing were all banned. As a result in The Crucible the witchcraft madness begins after Abigail and the girls have been caught dancing in the woods. The same scenario is echoed in Witch Child they practice not just in the forestDeborah and Hannah Vane, Sarah Garner and Elizabeth Denning and others unknown were found in a barn, dancing naked. We notice in both stories a parallel in which woods and forests are associated with witchcraft. This is demonstrated in Witch Child p121: The forest is also the realm of Satan and against him and his forces guns offer no protection This insinuates the wilderness is linked to the darkness thus forest was evil. Colourful clothing was also not allowed, this idea is repeated several times in Witch Child as people were all dressed in the dark sober clothes which mark them as Puritans This suggests puritans valued plainness in religious worship and had a lack of interest in material and artificial things as those were to distract men away from the right path. Another main concept of Puritanism is the theocracy in which their society is governed. The church represents the centre of the community and it is illustrated in both The Crucible and Witch Child. Non-attendance at church was a sin in which the person would be punished and excommunicated, losing all of his property and rights. In The Crucible, Proctor does not attend church as Reverend Hale note[s] that [he is] rarely in the church on Sabbath Day he also questions Proctors way of raising his children as only two are baptized?, and furthermore Proctor is found unable to quote the last commandment which Elizabeth reminds him that it is Adultery, John. All these statement are then held against him as incriminating evidence, whereby he is found suspicious in the Witch trial. Proctor is compared to Marys Grandmother in Witch child who always attended churcheven though she did not believe a word of what was saidshe went every Sundayshe never missed a service Unlike Proctor, Marys grandmother followed the Puritan lifestyle strictly with obedience even if it differed from her beliefs. It is ironic that Marys grandmother is said to be a witch in Witch Child but was still obedient to the puritan society, whereas Proctor is only seeking defence in Abigails false accusations but it is a whores vengeance, and you must see it!; yet both characters ended up accused and executed whether being innocent or not in the witch craft trial. Deep in the psyche of the inhabitants of Puritan society was a stigma surrounding the potential of women to become cohort of the Devil. Sexual prejudice linked witchcraft to females, and specific social circumstances made certain kinds of women particularly liable to witchcraft prosecution. Throughout Witch Child Mary is subjected to rumours in the community for her desire to wander in the forest this is apparent on p149 Such wandering could draw attention. If you were seen with him rumours are also added to her literacy skills and her knowledge on plants and their medicinal or heathen remedy uses. This was unusual to the community as puritans believed women were inferior, weak, and disregarded for their intellectual value mainly because female sexuality was associated with evil, stemming from the biblical depiction of Eve tempting Adam in the Garden of Eden. The sensual power of women was feared since they had the ability to corrupt upstanding Puritan men and leads them into paths of wickedness. Deborah Vane and Abigail William closely relate to each other being the main leaders of the Witchcraft insanity in both Witch Child and The Crucible books. Their motives for such spiteful behaviour were not justified although they had several advantages in being afflicted. The girls, who normally had a very low position in the social order, were able to act in a way that usually would have been unacceptable. Their strange and sometimes even disrespectful behaviour was blamed on the witches who were torturing them and forcing them to do so I danced for the Devil; I saw him, I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand. I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil! Seeing Abigails success, the other girls follow suit and with this pattern of hysterical, self-serving accusations, the witch trials get underway as the girls were excused and even pitied. I personally believe it was a way to gain attention, just like Proctor claims in Act 2 p72 Ill tell you whats walking Salem vengeance is walking Salem. We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law! In fact this whole scenario makes the girls the most powerful persons in Salem at that time, whereas in their normal lives they would not be able to have any perspective of improving their social status in the future. Since the exhibition of their affliction represented the main evidence during the trials, they were able to decide who was going to be accused and whether these persons were going to be executed or not. Whenever a person doubted the veracity of their afflictions or tried to argue with them, they would fall into fits accusing him or her of also being a witch.

The various types of Dividend policies used by companies

The various types of Dividend policies used by companies Dividend policy has drawn due attention from various researchers. One of the most famous studies in this respect is Miller and Modigliani hypothesis (1961), which asserted that the cash dividend policy is not important because it has no effect on the companys value, and as such it does not affect the company owners wealth. This is due to the fact that companies follow a Residual Dividend Policy which is based on reinvestment of corporate profits in the available investment opportunities (Van Horne 1983; Arnold 2008) with positive net present value and distribution the surplus cash as a cash dividend to shareholders. The above hypothesis aroused a lot of controversy on the part of researchers. However, the most important study that opposed it is that of Partington (1985) which claims that the companies do not follow in practice the residual dividend approach as the dividend decisions taken independently from the investment policy. Right now, controversies continue among researchers based on the subject without arriving at any decisive results This chapter will study the public dividend policy to shareholders, which is considered to be one of the most important financial decisions, in view of its direct relationship to shareholders and financing decisions and investment in the company. The chapter will also cover the alternatives to be addressed consisting of general dividend policy and theories that linked the cash dividend policy with the company market value, and therefore the company owners wealth in addition to the share dividend policy and buying back policy, besides the cash dividend policy and its relationship with the investment policy 2-2 General Dividend Policy The Company Board suggests distribute dividend to shareholders in an annual meeting (Watson and Head 2004). The main interest is to suggest acceptance and secure fair dividend for shareholders consistent with the rate of dividend decided by the company management. Therefore, in preparing dividend distribution, the mangers do not look only for current year profit, but they, instead, will look for the future earnings expected, and hence for the ability of the company to maintain a stable rate of dividend taking into consideration the systematic growth of this ratio. On their part, the investors are aware of this truth, and they look for a profit increase in a positive vision expecting throughout a stability of the future dividend. When the company achieves high profits for a particular year and do not expect the same level of profit for next years, they will make normal dividend and give additional dividend so as not to disappoint the investors hopes in the future. The profits are then divided into two dividends, a normal and an incremental dividend, to make notification to investors that this type of dividend is unexpected and would not continue in the future (Levy and Sarnat 1994). There are several alternatives for the profits dividend. The company may either distribute the profits in the form of regular cash dividends, or it may distribute profits in the form of shares dividends to shareholders. However, the above two types may be distributed at the same time. Besides that, shareholders can also obtain profits when the company tends to repurchase its shares, and considers the regular cash dividend as something quite common (Broyles 2003). The percentage of the profits distributed by the company is typically governed by several considerations. In addition to the law which prohibits the distribution of profits unless the company achieves a profit after deducting reserves, the contracts of the bonds, in case the company issues these bonds, often prevents companies from increasing the proportion of cash dividend on a certain level to secure the rights of bondholders (Watson and Head 2004). Thus, the general dividend policy may well looked upon on the basis of differentiating between the cash dividends and the shares dividend through capitalization of profits, or through buying back the companys shares. This is due to the fact that the investment policy is fixed. The company will thus detain profits to finance capital spending on growth and expansion or debt repayment, or extinguish the bonds if any, and distribute the remaining cash as a cash dividend, and also to finance any deficit in capital spending by issuing new shares or through outside borrowing. The company could detain the necessary funds to finance capital expenditure and re-buy part of the shares issued and distribute the remaining as a cash dividend. These alternatives will not affect the companys value, and therefore the wealth of shareholders, if the company is operating in market characterized by ideal, efficiency and depth (Merton and Modigliani 1961; Black and Scholes 1974; Peter 1996). In case such characteristics are absent of the market, one can expect arguments about the impact of dividend policy, particularly cash, on the value of the company, and therefore the wealth of shareholders. The second group (Gordon 1959; Blume 1980; Dyl and Weigand 1998; Koch and Shenoy 1999) believes that increasing the percentage of cash dividends would increase the companys value, thus increasing the shareholders wealth, while the third group (Litzenberger and Ramaswamy 1979; Blume 1980; Litzenberger and Ramaswamy 1982; Ang and Peterson 1985) believes that increasing the percentage of cash dividend will lead to a decline in the value of the company, thereby reducing the wealth of shareholders. These groups together with their theories will be discussed when dealing with the policy of cash dividend. The profits will be transferred to return earnings account, which is used for purposes determined by the board and the approval of the General Assembly of the company. This account is usually used to maintain a stable dividend amount of cash dividends (a systematically dividend policy). During the years where the company cannot meet the amount of normal dividend, they will tend to the return earnings account to insure any deficit. The General Assembly of the company has full authority to use this account for normal or abnormal cash dividend in whole or in part. It could also be used for company repurchase share, or for capitalization this account and distribution of share dividends to shareholders. On their part, shareholders can obtain their profits through a set of policies that can be combined in a single year, but it often takes one of the following alternatives(Watson and Head 2004): A cash dividend policy Shares dividend policy Buying back shares policy 2-3 Cash Dividend Policy The impact of cash dividend policy on current prices of the company shares is considered to be very important, not only for policy makers, but also for investors, portfolio managers, and economists interested in the performance of capital markets (Watson and Head 2004). The questions to be raised here are: Can managers maximize the wealth of the owners of the company through a particular dividend policy? (Lumby and Jones 1999) Are the companies with high dividend sold with premium? Should the shares of companies that retain their profits or distribute a percentage of its profits, be sold as well in a lesser price? The fact is that these questions were, and still are, the subjects of many applied studies. Until now, there seems no consensus on the answers to these questions. The reason is the presence of other relevant factors that affect the market value of the shares that enable us to measure the impact of dividend policy on profits alone. This means that researchers did not so far prepare both proper and adequate tests and studies to distinguish between different hypotheses. The arguments among researchers about the dividend policy focus on that part of the cash dividend to be distributed to shareholders and its impact on the companys value and therefore the wealth of the owners of the company. Miller and Modigliani (1961) see that the cash dividend does not affect the value of the company, as the companys value will not be affected by how earned profits are divided; but rather affected by the ability to achieve profits. Thus, there is no point in thinking of how to divide profits between dividends and return earnings, while thinking must be directed towards maximizing these profits through the optimal investment policy as the way by which the cookie is divided will not lead to increase its size. In the opinion of others (see, Olson and McCann 1994; Lipson, Maquieira et al. 1998), the manner in which profits are divided between dividends and return earnings affects the companys value through an increase or decrease in the demand for the company shares, as the investors with high incomes usually prefer companies without cash dividend if the value of taxes on cash dividend exceeds the taxes on capital gains, while investors typically prefer companies that cash high dividends if they do not pay taxes or who were in low category of taxes. Also, investors in growing companies may not ask the company to distribute high cash dividends and accept, instead, low cash dividends. This is because the internal return rate in these companies is usually greater than the costs of obtaining funds from sources other than return earnings, and thus maximize the wealth of shareholders through the detention of all or most of the profits and use them to finance projects which have positive present v alue. Investors in non-growing companies, on their part, look for high dividends (see, Walter 1963). From the foregoing discussion, it is viewed by many scholars that the harmony between cash dividend policy with investor wishes will affect the market value, due to any increase or decrease for the company shares emanating from this harmony or compatibility, which will be reflected on the price of its shares. The decision of cash dividend policy, particularly its cash portion, is one of the challenges facing company managers, because the distribution decision defines the funds to be given companys shareholders, and therefore the funds to remain for managers in the company to reinvest (Lumby and Jones 1999). The cash dividend policy can be considered as an action plan for the company to be followed when the company needs to make a decision regarding cash dividends, so that this plan could provide several options from which the company can choose to reach the desired goal. Such a plan is laid taking into account the following two main goals: Maximizing the wealth of shareholders and meeting the company needs to finance its investments. There are several factors affecting the decision to choose the most appropriate alternative among the alternatives available in the action plan. These factors are: legal, contractual, internal shareholders and market considerations. These factors reduce the available alternatives for the company in order to achieve its aims through a cash dividend policy practice. The available alternatives include the companys range of cash dividend policies the company could follow (Gitman 1997; Brigham and Houston 2004) . These include: Fixed dividend policy rate Regularly dividend policy Regularly low fixed dividend with special or added dividend Remaining cash dividend policy. These policies will be discussed in detail as follows: Fixed Dividend Policy Rate This percentage is determined by apportionment of dividends on profits earned. The percentage distribution of 80% of the net profits derived mean that the company will distribute 80% of its profits and reserves 20% of retained earnings. Since corporate annual profits are not fixed, adopting this policy will lead to a fluctuation in the amount of dividends because the stability of the dividends rate from non fixed profit leads to a difference in the amount of the annual dividends, which is the main criticisms of this policy. Since the fluctuation of the quantity of dividends is one of the benchmarks that measure the risks of the company and because the non fluctuation of the profits is usually seen as something positive for current and future performance of the company, the prices of company shares that follow such a policy may be adversely affected by this policy. Regular Dividend Policy The company, according to this policy, pays fixed rates as a dividend each year. For example, they may pay $0.2 per share each year, which will be fixed next years. This policy gives a positive indicator about the company because of the stability of the quantity of dividends, leading to reduce the risks of uncertainty. The companies that follow such a policy tend to increase the dividends rate whenever they feel that the increase in profits is steady and continuing in the future. Low regular fixed policy with special or added dividend Some companies follow a policy of systematic low dividend with additional dividends when the companys profits are unstable and highly volatile so that the companys profits are high in a given year but low in another, which makes it difficult for it to follow a regularly high-level profits distribution policy be able to maintain it. The company, therefore, seeks to pay low dividends characterized by being consistent and continuous and then pay other additional and unusual dividends in the years where it can secure high profits. The company thus has been able to achieve consistency and continuity in the level of profitability, which are indicators of great importance on the part of investors, who consider this as something necessary for building confidence with the company. Remaining cash dividend policy The optimal cash dividend rate for any company is best determined by the differentiation between a numbers of factors (Brigham, L. et al. 1999) Shareholders preference for cash dividend or capital gains. Investment opportunities available for the company. Optimal structure mix for the companys capital (money sources). External financing costs The last three factors combined affect the remaining dividend policy which is based on distributing cash dividends which exceeds the companys to finance all company investment opportunities that have positive present value. The company should make the following three steps when applying the remaining cash dividends policy (Brigham and Houston 2004) Identifying all the available investment opportunities which have positive present value and in which the company wishes to invest. Determining the optimal structure mix of capital that achieves the lowest cost. Using the profits to finance new projects with positive present value because of their low cost in comparison with new share issues in case they represent the best combination of capital. Based on this concept, and as long as the money needed by the company to reach the optimal mix of the capital structure is the equity funds , and not money borrowed, and as long as the need for funds exceeds the companys achieved profits and return earnings, the company will not make any dividends distribution for shareholders (Van Horne 1983). But in case the funds needed are less than the return earnings, the company will take its cash needs and distribute the exceeded money as a cash dividend for shareholders. Besides that, if the optimal capital structure mix does not make it incumbent upon the company for financing or allowing to borrow without leading to the level of damage risks of the company, the company then may distribute profits to shareholders because of lack of need and also because these profits are considered as surplus (Arnold 2008). 2-3-1 Factors affecting cash dividend policy A combination of factors affect the cash dividend policy and put pressure on the management when a dividends proposal is submitted to the General Assembly to be taken as a justification of reference for the Assembly when ratifying or adjusting this proposed. These most important of these factors are arguably (see, Damodaran 1997; Gitman 1997; Brigham, L. et al. 1999; Brigham and Houston 2004) the following: legal, contractual, internal, growth and the expected expansion, shareholders preferences for cash dividend or capital gains and capital market considerations. These factors are explained here in some details: Legal restrictions Cash dividends should not exceed the total of retained earnings plus net profits for the current year. This is known as the Impairment of Capital Rule. If the companys net profits equal to $500 thousand and it the retained earnings of $ 2 millions, then it should not distribute profits more than $ 2.5 million; but if there is retained loss within equity amounting to $200 thousands, then it should not distribute more than $300 thousands. Contractual restrictions Usually borrowing contracts restrict the amount of profits allowing the company to distribute to shareholders to ensure the rights of the lenders. When the company issues borrowing bonds, the contracts usually include both permissions and restrictions from the date of bonds issuance till bonds date off. The bonds contract often will not allow the company to distribute cash dividends only if they exceed the amount earned in a certain amount. The contract might also prevent the company from increasing the percentage distribution of normal profits or may determine the profits that could be distributed by the companys net profits for distribution. The company accepts such conditions on themselves to reduce the risks of borrowing from the viewpoint of the lender, thus reducing borrowing costs. There are also restrictions on cash dividends imposed upon issuance of the preferable shares of the company. In this respect, it is natural to restrict the distribution of any dividends to ordinary shareholders unless they pay all preferable share profits. Internal constraints The companys ability to pay cash dividends is affected by the quantity of liquid funds available, not by profits and return earnings only. Although the company could resort to borrowing for financing the cash dividend or issuing new shares to finance the dividend process, the companies often do not do that because of high costs for this decision. The company can use it in urgent cases to stabilize the amount of dividends, since the fluctuation of the value of dividends may convey a cost that could be higher than the distribution finance costs. Thus, the companys ability for cash dividends or desire to distribution is often constrained by liquid funds available. Company expected growth and expansion The volume of capital expenditure required for financing expansion and growth significantly affects cash dividend policy adopted by the company. If the company is in continuous expansion and development, using modern technology, they will need all the funds available to finance operations. On the other hand, the companies that have reached the stage of maturity are more able to distribute cash dividends than companies in growth. Shareholders preference for cash dividends or capital gains One of the management functions is to maximize the company owners wealth therefore we should take into account the owners interests when preparing the cash dividend policy. The companys ability to distribute cash profits and desire to do so are often constrained by several important factors affecting the interests of company owners (Brigham, L. et al. 1999): Tax status of the companys owners: If most of the companys owners are affluent are in high tax brackets, the company will resort to a dividends policy whereby it can reduce the impact of taxes on the shareholders profits. Investment opportunities available for company owners If shareholders can obtain returns for re-investing their profits exceeding the companys returns, the company must distribute a greater proportion of profits to enable shareholders to maximize their wealth by reinvesting these profits. But if the companys returns are more than shareholders returns, then the company must transfer the maximum part of their profit to return earnings for reinvestment in order to maximize the shareholders wealth. The steady control of former shareholders If the company tends to distribute all, or most, of profits achieved over the years, it will find itself forced to issue new shares to finance the expansion and development projects. This would first lead to mitigate and minimize the control of the companys former owners of the company; and then the profits to be gained would be reduced because of the increasing number of company owners due to the issuance of new shares. This situation could be remedied through the allocation of shares, by allowing old shareholders to subscribe for new shares, each according to his/her contribution and giving them priority in this respect. The company could also resort to another alternative, i.e. to reduce the proportion of cash dividends if they want to retain full control over old shareholders and show no inclination towards increasing the number of shareholders. Stable and clear dividend policy Investors give special importance to the stable and clear dividends policy. Also, they give special importance for the continuity of these dividends because they believe that the stability, increase, and continuity of dividends would surely lead to reduce risks from the standpoint of investors. Therefore, investors tend to discount returns of companies whose policies of distribution are characterized by stability, increase and continuity at a discount rate less than other companies. This means that they highly evaluate these companies; in other words, they ask for a less rate of returns, thereby reducing the companys capital cost. Profit information content Investors are interested in the informational content of the profits. Through these profits, they can read the management forecasts for company future profits. As the mangers have more precise information about the company investors, on their part, will give special attention to the informational content of the profits. 2-3-2 Theoretical Framework for Dividend policy and its impact on market value We can clarify the theoretical framework for the relationship between the dividend policies (cash, shares and repurchase) and market value of the company through the Irrelevant Theory was brought by M M in 1961. They suggested that there was no relationship between the dividend policy and market value. Many researchers have supported this theory, but also others have suspicion about it. The advocates researchers believe that companies should follow residuals dividend policy while the opponents researchers divided into two divisions, the first believes that there is a positive relationship between the dividend policy and the company market value, others said that this relationship is negative. The relationship between the dividend policy and the company market value is also affected by other dimensions which create a number of other theories, where we find that the uncertainty created a bird in the hand theory , the presence of taxes helped to find a Tax Effect Theory, either shareholders loyalty has created a Clientele Effect Theory, Management try to send some information through the dividend policy covered by Signaling Effect Theory, while the separation of management and owners (shareholders) has created Agency cost Theory. Therefore, we can draw the theoretical framework for the study through the following form: Theoretical Framework (figure 2-1) Share Dividend Positive Relationship Negative Relationship Irrelevant Market Value Relationship Dividend Policy Irrelevant Theory Relevant Residual Dividend Policy Bird in the Hand Theory Tax Effect Theory Clientele Effect Theory Signaling Effect Theory Agency Cost Theory Cash Dividend Share Repurchasing 2-3-2-1 Irrelevance Proposition There is a belief among many finance and economics specialists that cash dividends policy is not important because it is not relevant and does not affect the owners wealth. The source of this belief is a study conducted by Miller and Modigliani (1961). This study concluded that the dividends policy has no effect on the companys value, so the managers will not be able to maximize the owners wealth through a dividends policy. The irrelevance proposition concept for dividends policy on the owners wealth stems from the fundamental idea that companies which distribute continuous high cash dividends to shareholders and secure a little bit higher share prices (Archer, Choate et al. 1983; Lumby and Jones 1999). As a result, the investors capital gains are very limited in this company as he would receive the same returns received by other investors holding another companys shares with low dividends while its prices become high because of the return earnings, and so he obtains high capital gains which compensates the limited cash dividends. In both cases, the shareholders wealth is the profits obtained by cash dividend plus capital gains realized from rising share prices. In case there are no taxes or whether taxes on capital gains are equal, the investor will not be affected, whether the company has established cash dividends or kept the profit in return earnings and the investor has obtain capital gains when se lling his shares as a result of the rise of the companys shares by cash undistributed profits with no change in the other effective factors. This theory is based on the following assumptions (Merton and Modigliani 1961): There are no taxes, or the taxes rate on cash dividends and taxes rate on capital gains are equal. There is no transactions cost for the process of selling or buying shares so that, if the investor needs cash, he will be able to sell his shares without losing any commissions and fees instead of cash dividends. The investor is absolutely rational in his decisions. There are no agency costs. This means that the company managers that distribute low cash dividends do not use the company profits to achieve personal goals that may harm the company (Jensen 1986). The company operates under a full and efficient market, which means that the information is available and accessible to all at the same time without any costs, and the stock prices reflect information and absolutely influenced by it at the moment provided. There is no information gap, including that the company operates under a full and efficient market. The future outlook on the performance of the company is homogeneous among all investors, as so do information and expectations among managers and investors. According to irrelevance proposition, the dividend policy affects only the level of external financing required to finance future projects with positive net present value. This means that each dollar distributed to shareholders represents a capital loss of a dollar. According to this hypothesis, the only constraint to the companys market value is the companys investment policy, not the companys dividends policy followed. This is because the investment policy is responsible for future profits (Miller and Modigliani 1961). Accordingly, the companys decision on the distribution of cash or non-profit distribution would not affect the market value of the company and therefore would not affect the owners wealth. This hypothesis recommends that managers should give greater importance to the investment policy and let the dividends policy follow the investment policy, which is known the Residual Dividend Approach. The advocates of the irrelevance proposition hypothesis (Black and Scholes 1974; Miller and Scholes 1978; Merton and Myron 1982; Merton 1986; Peter 1996) adopt the idea that the investor can build his own cash dividends policy regardless of the companys dividends policy. This is known as Homemade Dividend(Merton and Modigliani 1961) where the investors can obtain income through selling part of his shares equal to the value of cash profits that could have been distributed by the company, if the company does not have cash dividends and the investor himself wishes to receive cash dividends to meet his consumer needs. He may wish also to reinvest cash dividends distributed by the company in case the investor shows no desire for cash dividends. By following this method, the investor will not be affected by the companys dividends policy, and therefore would not be compelled to abandon the stocks of companies followed by a dividends policy which is not consistent with his wishes. One of the criticisms against the irrelevance proposition hypothesis is that it cannot be practically acceptable. The theory of building a dividends policy for each investor based on efficient market, with no transaction costs for buying and selling (Dempsey and Laber 1992), is not practical. In addition, the investor will pay taxes on cash dividends or capital gains, making the adoption of a specific dividends policy for each investor something costly. Besides, the investment in companies whose cash dividends policy is consistent with the investors needs is less expensive than building a special dividends policy. The hypothesis has been built on the basis that the investor is quite rational when taking his decisions. The psychological tests have proved, however, that human beings are not rational one hundred percent with regard to decision-making. Shefrin and Statman (1984) in their study said that investors have an unreasonable preference regarding the profit dividends; this is not consistent with the irrelevance proposition hypothesis. The irrelevance proposition hypothesis is also criticised for assuming equality between the cash dividends and capital gains, while cash dividend is a cash in hand without any uncertainty risk, and the capital gains is cash in the future with a lot of risks. So, how can they be equal? The irrelevance proposition hypothesis has been built on a set of assumptions and data that have already been indicated. It is understood here that any change in these assumptions and data would naturally lead to a change in the basic hypothesis and therefore to a change in the results. Accordingly, and in practical terms, the financial markets in general do not agree with these assumptions.